CENSUS BUREAU: State Government Tax Revenue Rises for Third Year in a Row

State government tax revenue increased by 6.1 percent from fiscal year 2012 to a record $846.2 billion in 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau reported on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. The increase shows an upward trend in state government tax revenue for the third year in a row. From fiscal year 2010 to 2011, state government tax revenue increased by 7.3 percent; from fiscal year 2011 to 2012, the increase was 4.7 percent.

“The Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections provides an early look at the fiscal status of our state governments,” said Cheryl Lee, chief of the Census Bureau’s State Finance and Tax Statistics Branch. “Governments and businesses can use these statistics to make policy and investment decisions.”

Forty-eight states saw an increase in total tax revenue in fiscal year 2013. States with the largest percentage increase were North Dakota (27.8 percent), California (15.6 percent), Hawaii (10.5 percent) and Colorado (9.6 percent). Two states, Alaska and Wyoming, saw a decrease in total tax revenue primarily because of a decline from 2012 in severance tax revenues. Severance taxes are collected for the removal or harvesting of natural resources (e.g., oil, gas, timber, fish, etc.)

“These data provide the earliest comprehensive look at state revenue for the fiscal year. We use them extensively in our work,” said Don Boyd, senior fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government at the State University of New York in Albany. “They provide important information to policy analysts, the municipal finance industry, economic forecasters, governments and many other audiences concerned about the fiscal health of state governments and the services they provide.”

Revenue statistics are broken down into 25 subcategories that cover collection on items such as motor fuel taxes, amusements taxes and hunting license taxes. Tax revenues also include related penalty and interest receipts of the governments.

Highlights from the 2013 Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections

·Total state government tax revenue on individual income rose to $309.6 billion for 2013, up 10.3 percent, while general sales tax revenue rose to $254.7 billion for 2013, up 3.9 percent from 2012.

·Individual income tax revenue, general sales tax revenue and corporation net income tax revenue comprised 72.0 percent of all state government tax collections nationally.

·States with the largest percentage increase in tax revenue from individual income taxes were North Dakota (48.4 percent), Tennessee (44.2 percent), California (21.4 percent) and New Hampshire (21.4 percent).

·States with the largest percentage increase in tax revenue from general sales taxes were North Dakota (13.0 percent), South Carolina (9.3 percent), Hawaii (9.1 percent) and California (8.5 percent).

·Severance tax revenues were down $0.8 billion in 2013, a 4.5 percent decrease from 2012. This followed a 26.3 percent increase from 2011 to 2012. Texas ($1.0 billion) and North Dakota ($0.7 billion) had the largest increases in severance tax revenue. Alaska ($1.8 billion) and Oklahoma ($0.3 billion) had the largest decreases.

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These statistics do not include employer and employee assessments for retirement and social insurance purposes. Also excluded are collections for the unemployment compensation taxes imposed by each of the state governments. These statistics include tax collections for state governments only; they do not include tax collections from local governments.